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Tariff-Growth Nexus in the Australian Economy, 1870-2002: Is There a Paradox?*

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Tariff-Growth Nexus in the Australian Economy, 1870-2002: Is There a Paradox?* Tariff-Growth Nexus in the Australian Economy, 1870-2002: Is there a Paradox?* Prema-chandra Athukorala Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Australian National University [email protected] Satish Chand Crawford School of Economics and Government Australian National University [email protected] Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between tariff and growth in the Australian economy over the period from 1871 to 2002. The study is motivated by the debate on the apparent ‘tariff-growth paradox’, a sign switch in the link between tariff rate and growth between the first and second episodes of globalization in world history, established from cross-country growth regressions. The long annual time series together with the recent developments in time series econometrics allows us to establish an unambiguous and stable negative relationship between tariff rates and economic growth. It is of course not possible to generalize from a single country case, but our results do cast significant doubts on the ‘tariff-growth paradox’ reported in recent cross-country studies. Keywords: economic growth, tariff, Australia * An earlier version of this paper was delivered the International Conference on Globalisation in Asia and the Pacific Before The Modern Era held at the Australian National University from 29 June to 1 July, 2005. We are grateful to Tim Hatton, Jeffrey Williamson, Glenn Withers, and participants at the conference for their comments. 1 1 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between trade protection and growth of output, drawing on annual data for Australia for thirteen decades. The study is motivated by the debate on the apparent ‘tariff-growth paradox’, a sign switch in the link between tariff rate and growth between the first and second episodes of globalization in world history, established from cross-country growth regressions. We also believe that the study is of direct relevance to the analysis of long-term growth trajectory of the Australian economy, given the prominent position of tariff policy in the national policy debate. Historians of the 19th Century have canvassed the view that protection, not free trade, was associated with high growth. Perhaps the most forceful voice among them is that of Paul Bairoch who, in a comprehensive survey of the evolution of trade policy during 1892-1914, sums up the tariff-growth correlation in terms of a simple equation: ‘protectionism=economic growth and expansion of trade; liberalism=stagnation in both’ (Bairoch, 1989, p. 69). Subsequently, he identified the liberal trade theorist’s proposition that protectionism retards growth as a major myth in world history (Bairoch, 1993, Chapter 4). Bairoch’s proposition has been given credence by some recent work drawing on cross-country growth regressions that explore the link between protection and growth over a long time period. For instance, Kevin O’Rouke (2000) examines this relationship by estimating a growth regression with data for over ten countries between 1875 and 1914 and finds that ‘[t]he Bairoch hypothesis holds up remarkably well’ (p. 473). Vamvakidis (2002)1, using data for the 20th century for a different country sample finds a positive correlation between tariff and growth in the 1930s and a negative relationship between 1970 and 1990. In an analysis covering a sample of thirty-one countries , Michael Clements and Jeffrey Williamson (2001, 2004) confirm O’Rouke’s finding for the period between 1870 and 1913 and the sign reversal of the relationship uncovered by Vamvakidis for the post-World War period. They rationalise this sign 2 reversal (which they dub the ‘tariff-growth paradox’) by linking the relationship to significant shifts in the external economic environment between the two periods. In particular, they claim that the reversal might be related to the average level of protection in the world economy; when a country’s trade partners have high tariffs, it can speed up its own growth by adopting high tariff protection. It is of course possible to build theoretical models in which the relationship between tariff and growth could go either way. But one can also forcefully argue that the pre-war positive correlate between tariff and growth uncovered in the cross national regression analysis simply reflect a failure to appropriately allow for significant structural differences among countries in the post-World War 2 period, and in the late 19th century and the beginning of the twentieth century (Irvin 2001, Helpman 2004, Bhagwati and Srinivasan, 2001 ). The way trade policy affect growth depends crucially on the economy’s characteristics, such as the type of products it trades or the human capital intensity of its import-competing sectors. In particular, in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, expanding horizons in terms of access to natural resources and labour played a key role (particularly in the western-offshoot countries) in growth of output, with productivity improvement playing a relatively minor role. Cross-country regression analysis, by its very nature, generally fails to capture these details. These regressions, moreover, suffer from problems of specification uncertainty, endogeneity, and measurement errors (Bhagwati and Srinivasan, 2001). In this context, there is a need for supplementing cross-country evidence with systematic individual country (and industry) studies. Australia provides an ideal case study of the issue at hand given its rich history of experimentation with trade protection. Australia has gone the full circle from having relatively liberal trade policies at federation in 1901 to being highly protectionist around the middle of the century followed by a rapid progression towards dismantling of trade barriers by the end of the 20th Century. This large variation in the tariff rate permits econometric analysis to decipher the tariff-growth nexus. Moreover, the rich historical economic database of Australia enables us to 1 The discussion paper version appeared in 1997. 3 examine the tariff-growth nexus while controlling for a number of factors impacting on the production frontier such as expansion of land area and endowment of mineral resources on the rate of growth of output. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a brief history of protection within Australia and the motivations for the major changes in the trade stance over the 130-year history. Section 3 presents a short discussion on issues relating to quantification of the restrictiveness of international trade. Section 4 presents the empirics including the econometric analysis. Conclusions bring the paper to a close. Our results reveal a persistent statistically significant negative relationship between the tariff rate and growth in Australia over the 1870-2002 period. It is of course not possible to generalize from the experience of a single country, but our results do point to the need for further systematic analysis of individual country experiences in resolving the existence or otherwise of the claimed ‘tariff-growth paradox’. 2. The Australian Tariff Policy The usual starting point for studying the evolution of trade policy in Australia is 1850 when the Australian Colonies Government Act laid the foundation for self-government in the colonies. The Act applied to New South Wales (NSW), Van Diemen’s Island (subsequently renamed Tasmania), South Australia and Victoria and provided for future application to Western Australia. On the basis of the Act of 1850 the various colonies framed their constitutions and legislated for tariffs in the period 1850-1856. The tariffs that first evolved in the three main colonies (NSW, Tasmania and Victoria) were simply revenue tariffs, with special duties on a limited list of goods such as wine, tobacco, tea, coffee and sugar and no ad valorem duties. South Australia framed a rather more complicated tariff structure with specific duties only on spirits and tobacco and a uniform 5 per cent ad valorem rate on other goods not on the free list. Overall, ‘the colonies at first were inclined to outdo the mother country in their free trade zeal’ (La Nauze 1955). 4 A significant departure from this common free-trade stance of the colonies took place one-and-a-half decades later. In April 1866, the Victorian Assembly passed a tariff bill enabling the introduction of tariff protection to support local industry. Victoria was the first British colony to introduce trade policy intended to promote industrialization by means of a protectionist tariff (Bairoch, 1989, p 146). The initial Victoria tariff was relatively moderate, but import duties were noticeably increased in 1871 and again in 1877 (Corden 1964). While trade protection soon became the firmly established policy in Victoria, free trade reigned in NSW for the rest of the nineteenth century. The other colonies, although with tariffs primarily designed for revenue, were at the same time by no means such staunch free traders as New South Wales. Queensland, separated from NSW in 1859, started to protect its sugar industry first by bounties and later by duties on refined sugar and syrups. South Australia, mainly dependent on primary production, and strongly in favour of inter-colonial free trade, nevertheless protected its clothing and wool industry. Tasmanian tariffs had been of a retaliatory character. State powers were not granted to Western Australia until 1890. These increasingly divergent policies contributed to inter-colonial debates on customs policies. 2 The first federal tariff was introduced on 8 October 1901; putting an end to inter- colonial tariff wars. The new tariff, a compromise between the revenue tariff of NSW and protectionist tariffs of Victoria, was ‘weakly protective’ (with duties ranging from 5 to 25 percent) (Pincus 1995, p 60). However, the truce did not last long. The fear that American industry would ‘dump’ surplus production at prices that would suppress wages of the Australian workers resulted in a major tariff reform in June 1908. The new tariff (the so-called Lyne-tariff) involved doubling of import duties on most categories of goods, while retaining preferences for British products.
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